1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of detecting a depth-of-field (DOF) region and performing image processing by using the DOF region.
2. Description of the Related Art
A depth-of-field (DOF) refers to a range of distance between a nearest subject and a farthest subject in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image captured by a camera lens. In the image captured by the camera lens, a region within the DOF may appear to be in focus. Accordingly, even when a specific subject within the DOF is focused, another subject within the DOF may also appear to be focused.
From among subjects in an image, since a subject within a DOF appears clear whereas a subject outside the DOF appears relatively unclear, there is a clarity difference between the subject within the DOF and the subject outside the DOF. Therefore, an image processing technique which utilizes an image characteristic where a region corresponding to a DOF has higher clarity than remaining regions or an image processing technique for highlighting a clarity difference between a region corresponding to a DOF and remaining regions have been generally employed.